On board the QE

The internet reception is now slowly getting better as we are now sailing near the coast on our way from Florida to Curacao. There are also not as many passengers online at the same time sending news as in the first two weeks, sometimes there were up to 600 at the same time, which the ship's weak signal couldn't handle. Therefore, here are some photos of life on board in the past days, such as the captain's reception, the sail away parties on the open deck in very cold Hamburg, and with the fireworks in Southampton. Other photos show the "Balloondrop," the traditional British afternoon tea, which takes place every day for an hour and is highly sought after but also creates conflicts of conscience because the ladyfingers (small sandwiches), scones with clotted cream, and small pieces of cake have quite a few calories. The warmest and most relaxing sail away party so far was in the 26-degree warm Fort Lauderdale, where we were docked with a total of six huge (compared to the QE, that is small) American cruise ships that can accommodate up to 3600 passengers and had amusement parks with big screens on the upper deck in Port Everglades.

Then a few photos of the art of vegetable carving, which I found impressive and quite original, and also some interior views of the ship, such as the library, the theater, or the various restaurants! The library is well visited every day because there are well-sorted and abundant travel guides available for our destination areas, as well as books and magazines in all languages that can also be borrowed or one can simply retreat to the quiet area, read or work on the PC. Of course, every day many people solve the really difficult quiz questions, the solution of which will then be posted in the afternoon. Then the winner of the bottle of champagne is named. And almost everyone stops at the big globe and looks at our position or how far we are already away from Europe.

The "Britannia" is the regular restaurant with a fixed table order for dinner in the evening. You can also have breakfast and lunch there, then the seating is free choice. If you prefer it more casual and don't want to change for dinner, you can also stay in the Lido buffet restaurant in the evening, which is open around the clock. The view from the floor-to-ceiling windows of the sea or the harbor is also beautiful. I enjoy it in the morning. It is so big that even during peak times there is always a place to find. Non-alcoholic drinks such as coffee, tea, juices, and water are offered 24 hours a day at no additional cost. And for those who are very hungry, there is also a small midnight buffet. So the physical well-being is taken care of.

The theater is the place for morning lectures, matinee concerts, and of course the evening shows, which are different every night, usually with guest artists on board who travel a distance. It is not only well attended every evening, but also in the morning for the lectures, today there was a particularly interesting lecture by a professor from Imperial College/London on genetic research and the theater was completely full.

Perhaps also interesting is the current composition of nationalities among the passengers:

The ship is currently not fully booked because many people got off in NY and Fort Lauderdale, so there are "only" 1895 passengers instead of the actual 2090, of which 1022 are British, 356 are Americans, and then 137 are Germans in third place. Canada follows with 99, Australia with 81. After all, there are even 36 French people on board and 22 Japanese people. But in Japan, many Japanese will board. Overall, there are currently 35 nationalities, with 1 Turk at the very end. There isn't a single Russian.

Our outside temperature is now averaging about 25 degrees with lots of sunshine, so it's almost ideal. It will get really hot in Asia and the South Pacific.

With sunny greetings! Eva